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“The Most Out Of Guys Who Were Stifled”

Greg Schiano led a “toxic” team and was “unprepared to be an NFL head coach,” explains a noted Bucs analyst.

One common reason noted experts give for a potential radical Bucs turnaround this season is the change from Greg Schiano to Lovie Smith.

Simply stated, many believe the Bucs moved from total loser to proven winner. That’s gotta help, right?

Last week, credible FOX Sports insider Jay Glazer talked about how Lovie will “get the most out of guys who were stifled” by Greg Schiano. This was noteworthy given that Glazer sits next to Ronde Barber regularly on the FOX Sports 1 set. Did Barber tell him about the stifling New Schiano Order?

Speaking on SiriusXM NFL Radio last weekend, Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud dropped a hammer on Schiano, saying Schiano led a “toxic situation” and “he was unprepared to be an NFL head coach.”

Joe gets that Schiano was a bad gameday coach and had questionable people skills, at best.

However, Joe thinks it’s getting overblown just how much Lovie Smith could squeeze out of returning Bucs veterans. First off, there aren’t many of those vets left on offense. Vincent Jackson, Doug Martin? How much more will Lovie get out of them, if anything?

On the defensive front, Schiano, a former linebacker himself, definitely developed a strong unit there, even getting decent play out of Quincy Black in 2012.

Joe’s sure Lovie will get a lot more out of his defense, but not necessarily the returning Buccaneers. An exception would be Gerald McCoy, who should benefit greatly from a better scheme and being sandwiched by two excellent talents in Michael Johnson and Clinton McDonald. As for generating turnovers, the Bucs don’t have a lot of room to improve. They were excellent last year.

Again, Schiano was not a good head coach. But Joe thinks that goes more to the overall picture than to what he got out of players individually. Joe hopes to be wrong on this. If Joe is wrong, then that really could lead to a dramatic Bucs turnaround this year, a division-title kind of flip.

43 Responses to ““The Most Out Of Guys Who Were Stifled””

7-9 in his first NFL season and 4-12 in a season with so many off field dramas/distractions that I doubt even most seasoned NFL coaches (including the guy currently coaching the Bucs) could have done much better with. Schiano has to improve some things, but he is not this horrible buffoon of a coach that some fans seem to think. Lovie is a far more experienced NFL HC who brings more cred for getting players to buy in and therefore an upgrade, but it is kind of far fetched on Glazer’s part to think that Lovie is so much better a HC that his hiring alone = Super Bowl. Upgrade over Schiano…at this stage yes, Belichick quality coach…at this point Lovie isn’t (hopefully he can be)

With all due respect, Joe, the defense overall collapsed down the second half of Schiano’s first season. It improved markedly the second season, mainly on our GM landing Reavis. That was not Schiano’s accomplishment. Instead Stupid Schiano gave away two 1000 yard rushers still doing well in the NFL, cut Goode, who would have been an ideal T-2 MLB this year (intercepting a pick 6 and knocking down another pass, and defending runs sideline to sideline, in his last game as a Buc where he was voted the MVP), and brought in his pet Sack Magnet, Glennon, who is still an albatross on our roster, and by holding passes too long and a slow release, plus no escapability, ran up our sack totals last year and cost three OL their jobs, and led to big payouts of our Cap to replace. Schiano is such a loser the Brown’s rejected him for their HC. In my book he is the worst Coach in Buc’s history and I have watched them all!!!

Even if its just a coach with a better “overall picture”, how couldn’t that help with a huge turnaround?

Big picture/small picture, getting the most out of players, whatever it is Lovie has proven success in this league and Schiano does not (unless you count a 7-9 season success in this league). That is why we should be a better team overall.

Then why want somebody hire Schiano? Belichick has a LB job coaches open, but want touch the guy. The fans and players almost rioted in Cleveland when his name was mentioned. Everybody says he’s a good guy but a terrible coach. I don’t care on way or the other, he’s gone now!

Joe, I am shocked you failed to mention the ridiculous stunts we wont be using (except maybe once in a blue moon). Also no more of Adrian Clayborn covering 4.4 speed this year might improve AC’s performance

@ Mumbles
It could be as simple as Schiano doesn’t want to coach LBs. But it also appears that ‘fired’ coaches get decent offers if they stay completely away for a year or two. GMs/owners seem to had short memories.

Mumbles, Schiano will be lucky to get a Pee Wee League Coaching job next year. In eleven seasons he never won the weak Big East Championship when he was at Rutgers. He is an egotistical, control freak, who surrounded himself with yes men coach buddies of his, with such brilliance as Sheridan who was a disaster as a DL Coach with the Giants and had been fired!!! The Glazers should have fired him after eight losses and hired Lovie then.

Joe I’m lost with your opinion. You constantly bring up the AC covering Sproles play and how the line was asked repeatly to run stunts. One has to believe if this defense was good with all that crap it will be vastly improved with a better scheme. On the the other side of the ball, the offense can do nothing but go up after Schiano was trying to hold on to leads or pull one out in the end which never happened.

I hope Shiano isn’t done in the NFL. Dood was a very good defensive minded coach. Don’t judge him on the stunts, he had to do it or they wouldn’t have won a game. I thought it super ballzy of Shiano to play Revis more zone later in the year, that made a huge difference in defensive play and showed that he can in fact adapt/game plan well. A 15th ranked defense with THAT dline was a heck of a feat. Stunts were well timed for the most part. Shiano coached to win, not keep it close and I liked that about him, hope Lovie can adopt that a little, but for the most part bucs will be very good albeit boring as hell to watch.

I guess it just all depends on what you think was more damning- The lack of coaching, or the lack of talent. Some people say Schiano did the best with what he had, others think he didn’t. I don’t know if anyone can definitively say 100% which was more at fault, and it more than likely was a combination of both. But this year with a a more experienced coach and a revamped roster we will be improved in those areas.

So, our individual players won’t play much better but overall we will be better? We are the sum of our parts Joe. Very confusing article– although I am exhausted at the moment and could have missed something.

I think Schiano has a stifling effect on Glennon…..Schiano’s paranoia over turnovers forced Glennon to throw the ball away….take sacks and to avoid any risky throws….sure it helped his QBR but it cost us games….I believe Schiano was and is a good judge of talent but is not a good gameday coach.
I don’t think fear is a good motivational tool….I like motivating with empathy & respect that I believe Lovie brings.

Yes, I agree with Andres. The stunts were spectacular. Although, I was a little surprise how well the line did when they allow the d-line to go after the QB. That must been some lucky breaks. That happens every once in a while. I also understand that play were AC is covering Sproles. Genius simply Genius. I’m surprise Joe does not see the purpose in the play. AC is much taller so he can deflect the passes to Sproles. I thought it was interesting that we never saw it come into fruition. Brees is an outstanding QB. But you know I like Schiano’s persistence. I would bring back the play next year. With better coaching AC will intercept that pass. But you know what, I was surprise Schiano did not use Revis as a blitzer. With his bad knee no one who expected that. Too bad we won’t get to see it happen next year.

owlykat Says
“With all due respect, Joe, the defense overall collapsed down the second half of Schiano’s first season. It improved markedly the second season, mainly on our GM landing Reavis. That was not Schiano’s accomplishment.”

Bullspit. Revis was not the deciding factor at all. He wasn’t anywhere near 100% and had a barely tolerable year. He was still recovering from his injury.

Tampabaybucfan Says“I think Schiano has a stifling effect on Glennon…..Schiano’s paranoia over turnovers forced Glennon to throw the ball away….take sacks and to avoid any risky throws….sure it helped his QBR but it cost us games….I believe Schiano was and is a good judge of talent but is not a good gameday coach.”

Or, perhaps he saw what he truly had in the quarterback he was forced to settle for in the third round because in year one he had Freeman forced on him and in year two Dominick traded away his first round pick.

Had he not “stifled” Mike Glennon, things may have gotten even uglier.

He traded away his first round pick to land the overpriced and injured CB that Schiano coveted for his poorly thought out defense. There is no excuse for Schiano. He was a horrible coach. He may have gone 7-9 in year one, but more importantly, he finished that season 1-5 and his Bucs “coaching” tenure 5-17. Poor adjustments, poorly thought out play design, bad playcalling, unsound coverage and pass rush plans… it’s all a recipe for disaster.

Coaching lost us some close games last year…..plus we went up quick on the SB champs. With some better players added this year, especially if our rooks catch onto nfl speed real quick, barring injury or more bad play calling, I predict a playoff appearance.

“the Schiano Men hold overs like ToesOnTheLine are more delusional than Japanese soldiers stuck out on remote Pacific islands after WWII was ended.”

Ha, well both me and the 3 other voices in my head agree that I’m perfectly sane 🙂 It’s an opinion based site (to some degree anyway), so you can have yours and I’ll hold to mine until I see Lovie get so much more out of all these guys. If the Bucs go 12-4 this season then I’ll gladly feast on crow, but a mediocre record only proves to me that Lovie wasn’t able to magically turn water into wine and find all this untapped potential in players that Schiano couldn’t get out of them.

many guys had their best seasons in buc jerseys under schiano (raheem set an admittedly low bar) and i can’t think of too many who truly regressed for reasons related to coaching (freeman & mike williams had issues with motivation\discipline outside the facility, tough to get on a coach for trying to push 2 talented but unfocused guys – other down seasons seemed to stem from injury or recovery from injury)….but somehow, the pieces never fit together on sundays. schiano had too many opinions and wrong instincts in terms of playcalling and (not) sustaining momentum, which created confidence problems and serious overthinking on the part of the players. i think lovie has proven he can manage that on defense, and on offense we just have to hope that tedford is the best coordinat

Hey guys Schiano’s gone can we not talk about him anymore ? We now have a great coach who has the respect of ALL the other coach’s, The ownership, The team And the FANS.
I believe this is going to be a great season in Tampa Bay. What a difference a coach can make. I really believe we already have a playoff team. Lovie Smith did a great job bring in some REALLY GOOD PLAYERS. He also did a good job in the draft. ( Mike Evans and A.S.J. ) . I like Charles Simms a lot but i think he should have picked a Guard but Lovie is such a better coach then I could ever be so I will believe he knows what are BUCCANEERS need more then I do. So I say bye to Schiano and WELCOME and THANK YOU to Lovie Smith. He brought are team back. I am a BUCCANEERS fan through and through even when we had that loser of a coach. I still don’t understand what the Glazers ever seen in him.??????????????????? ” GO BUCCANEERS ” 2014 will be a buccaneers year. And to all my fellow fans out there where back to are winning ways. True fans NEVER EVER give up. Training camp starts SOON…. Then we will get a much better idea how good we will be. See you at the games…